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Texas Officer Fatally Shot By Alleged Aryan Brotherhood Member

December 8, 2005

A Fort Worth police officer died two days after being shot by an alleged Aryan Brotherhood member.

Henry “Hank” Nava, 39, was shot in the head on November 29, 2005, while serving a warrant on Stephen Lance Heard, also 39, at a mobile home in northwest Fort Worth, according to arrest warrant affidavits.

Nava and two other officers were searching the mobile home for a suspect who had led police in a high speed chase the previous day. All three officers wore jackets with the word P-O-L-I-C-E on the front and back, and were allowed into the residence by a woman, who told them that Heard was not inside. When Nava opened a bedroom door, he found Heard, who “fired several shots at Officer Nava,” the affidavit states.

After the shooting, Heard, who has a criminal history that includes convictions for drug possession and forgery, fled to another nearby mobile home and held a 25-year-old woman hostage for three hours before he surrendered, police said.

Heard, on parole at the time of the shooting for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, told reporters in a jailhouse interview that he had smoked marijuana and taken methamphetamines before the shooting. He suffered a gunshot wound to the upper torso in the initial exchange of gunfire.

Sansom Park Police Chief Tony White said investigators linked Heard to a major identity theft ring. Authorities also said Heard had been a member of the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood prison gang; Heard, however, has denied being a member of any white supremacist gang.

Heard is charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. He is also being held on a parole violation warrant.